SAIF Corp. v. May

91 P.3d 802, 193 Or. App. 515, 2004 Ore. App. LEXIS 683
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 9, 2004
Docket00-02883; A119157
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 91 P.3d 802 (SAIF Corp. v. May) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SAIF Corp. v. May, 91 P.3d 802, 193 Or. App. 515, 2004 Ore. App. LEXIS 683 (Or. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

DEITS, C. J.

SAIF seeks judicial review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board setting aside SAIF’s denial of claimant’s occupational disease claim for a mental disorder. SAIF also seeks reversal of that portion of the board’s order that awarded claimant insurer-paid attorney fees of $15,000 for services rendered at the hearing. We conclude that the board did not err in holding that the claim was compensable or in its award of attorney fees. We therefore affirm.

We summarize the facts from the findings of the administrative law judge (ALJ), which were adopted by the board. Claimant worked for employer Department of Corrections as an Office Specialist 2. In September 1998, while still a probationary employee, claimant accepted a transfer to employer’s Emergency Response Unit, where she worked under the supervision of Holder, a 28-year veteran of employer. The board found that, during claimant’s work for the Emergency Response Unit, Holder created and maintained a hostile, abusive, intimidating, offensive, and demeaning work environment for claimant. He repeatedly sexually harassed claimant. Claimant attempted to cope with Holder’s behavior but became increasingly depressed and anxious, with marked distress and significant impairment in social and occupational functioning. She developed physical symptoms caused by her psychological condition, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and chest pain.

In December 1999, claimant sought medical services for her condition, and her doctor, Dr. Harper, authorized temporary disability compensation to restrict her exposure to Holder. Harper described claimant’s condition as follows:

“For several months [claimant] has been having frequent diarrhea, chest pain, abdominal pain, and generally feeling very poorly. She is under a lot of stress at work. She feels threatened by her boss. T am deathly afraid of him.’ She has worked for him for one year and three months and has suffered physical and emotional abuse throughout her employment there. Abuse has gradually been escalating. He will shove her against the wall, kick her, and act as if he is about to punch her. He tells her that women are stupid and women are subservient to men. She has interviewed for [518]*518numerous jobs and has been ranked at the top, but he refuses to allow her to leave her current position. She has contacted her union about her work environment. They would like her to sue and try to have her boss fired. She does not want to do that because she believes that her boss would kill her if he were fired because of her. Her physical symptoms are directly related to the stress she is under at work. Having diarrhea several times a day. Feels nauseated and sometimes vomits before going to work. Has a constant anterior chest pressure that is there day and night and has been present for several months now.”

(Emphasis added.) Claimant had no prior psychological condition.

Claimant was transferred by employer to a different position beginning on December 27, 1999, where she has worked successfully and productively. Her condition began improving when she was removed from the work stressors created under Holder’s supervision.

Dr. Bennington-Davis, a psychiatrist who performed an insurer medical evaluation (IME) of claimant for SAIF, expressed the opinion that claimant was suffering from an “adjustment disorder with depressed mood” caused by the stress of Holder’s harassment. In response to a question from SAIF’s representative as to whether claimant was merely suffering from or complaining of symptoms or discomfort, but not actually suffering from a diagnosable condition, Bennington-Davis responded:

“[Claimant] has signs and symptoms consistent with adjustment disorder with depressed mood. She also has symptoms and discomfort from symptoms including recurrent and intrusive distressing thoughts; recurrent distressing nightmares; intense psychological distress from exposure to her workplace and prior supervisor (Mr. Holder); efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings and conversations associated with her work the last several months; efforts to avoid activities, places and people that arouse recollections of her work in that place; associated hypervigilance; difficulty with sleep; and exaggerated startle. However these symptoms do not combine in either numbers or severity to actually make a second psychiatric diagnosis.”

(Emphasis added.)

[519]*519Bennington-Davis was also asked whether claimant had a diagnosable psychiatric disorder and, if so, what was the basis for the diagnosis. She responded:

“Yes, [claimant] meets the criteria for adjustment disorder with depressed mood. By definition the disturbance and adjustment disorder begins within 3 months of the onset of a stressor which [claimant] does and lasts no longer than 6 months after the stressor, and hers indeed is beginning to remit now just 2 months after the stressor. If the stressor persists, the adjustment disorder also may persist as it has in the case of [claimant].
“The symptoms and behaviors that have begun in response to the stressor of harassment at work, include marked stress and significant impairment in social and occupational functioning. The modifier of ‘depressed mood’ is chosen because the predominant manifestations are symptoms of depressed mood, tearfulness, poor energy, feelings of hopelessness, irritability, and feeling helpless.”

(Emphasis added.) Finally, when asked to identify and apportion all stressors that affected claimant’s condition, Bennington-Davis replied, “Perceived harassment from her supervisor, 100%.”

The ALJ found that the major contributing cause of claimant’s mental disorder “is the severe and pervasive hostile, abusive, offensive, and intimidating work environment and conditions which Holder created and perpetrated for and towards claimant, his subordinate employee.” As noted above, the board adopted the ALJ’s findings and expressly found that claimant was a credible witness and that Holder was not credible. It determined that claimant suffered from a medically recognized and diagnosable mental disorder that arose out of and in the course of her employment. It also assessed a penalty against SAIF under ORS 656.262(1) for the issuance of an unreasonable denial.

On review to this court, SAIF first challenges the board’s determination that the claim is compensable. SAIF asserts that, in order to establish the compensability of an occupational disease, claimant must prove that employment conditions, when compared with nonemployment conditions, were the major contributing cause of the disease. ORS [520]*520656.802(2)(a). That is the correct standard. SAIF argues that claimant did not meet that burden of proof in this case because Bennington-Davis, on whose opinion the board primarily relied, did not have a complete history of off-work stressors that claimant was experiencing during the same period that she worked for Holder. It is SAIF’s position that the board erred in concluding that the lack of this information about the off-work stress did not make a difference, because it was not relevant to Bennington-Davis’s diagnosis due to the particular nature of the diagnosis and the particular circumstances.

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Related

Minor v. SAIF Corp. (In re Minor)
415 P.3d 1107 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2018)
Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. v. Lamb
377 P.3d 681 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 P.3d 802, 193 Or. App. 515, 2004 Ore. App. LEXIS 683, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saif-corp-v-may-orctapp-2004.